| It was like a scene from an action movie. More than 100 police officers with firearms and sniffer dogs took part in a four-hour stand-off with villagers armed with homemade bombs and shotguns. The result, six officers injured and four farmers arrested on attempted murder charges. This was a case of a land eviction that went horribly wrong. The lease on the farmer's land was coming to an end, and the local government wanted it back. But Doan Van Vuon's family refused to leave, saying that they had to borrow money and work hard for 20 years to develop the farm and are yet to receive any income from it. According to Vietnam's Land Law, individuals are given the right to work any piece of land for 20 years. After that, the local government decides whether their lease will be extended or the land given to someone else. This, some say, gives officials at the district level too much power in deciding people's livelihoods and creates a fertile environment for corruption. There are calls to privatise farmland in order to manage it better and more fairly. To do so, the constitution which says that all land belongs to the state, needs to be changed. Top communist party leaders are reluctant to discuss this as they consider it anti-socialist. But without a solution, the land problem will continue ticking away, possibly with more violent confrontations in the future. |
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